Lucid questions for study.

Since I am new I wanted to just jump right in. I am Brandon I am very interested in studying the science side of dreams and subconscious but I cant do it by myself as I rarely dream or rather get to REM as im a smoker and soda addict so I need others to expirament with. Enough of the introduction though. How much of your dreams do you believe is your subconscious and past that what parts do you believe you can interact with rather then just notice? Also do you guys believe in TILD (Totem Induced Lucid Dream) I am interested in giving a friend a totem to use and see if it not only works to induce lucid dreaming but also incorporate me into the dream, just her DC version of me as im still skeptical about shared dreaming. I know this is a lot for one post but hopefully its just enough to make you notice and make a big long thread, if I see you guys are interested in taking in depth looks into the lucid dream world you can expect to be seeing a lot more of me. Also something I just remembered hearing about. They say that light switches and other devices alike don't work in the dream world, do you guys believe it is possible the only reason for this is because its such common information and the dreamer believes they wont work so they don't? Currently having a friend test this theory without knowing.